Business Services Industry

CEO of Virgin Atlantic Mortgages Shares to Buy U.S. Mobile Phone Company.

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, July, 2001

By Brett Arends, Daily Mail, London Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Jul. 24--Eighteen months ago Sir Richard Branson raised UKpound 600 million cash for his sprawling business empire by selling 49 percent of Virgin Atlantic to Singapore Airlines.

This spring he mortgaged the remaining shares for UKpound 67 million to finance a US mobile phone venture.

Now he has sold his 25 percent of the Virgin One banking venture to Royal Bank of Scotland, which already had 50 percent, for UKpound 50 million. That is a tasty profit on his UKpound 5 million investment.

And he is in talks to sell the French Virgin Megastores for UKpound 100 million to local retailer Lagardere.

These are unusual moves. Branson is usually reluctant to...

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